start of something new
by not a straight trumpet
Summary: It was the night before the Kansai competition. That, at least, seemed to be the reason that Kumiko was going with, for how she ended up in a tree on the lawn of the Kousaka residence.


**a/n:** so i wrote most of this before 2x05 aired and. wowie. that episode was gay idk how my fic-writing is going to top that but yeah. here it is.

(also the title comes from high school musical, obviously)

* * *

It was the night before the Kansai competition, and Kumiko was growing restless. Her euph sat on her bed, polished to a shine, but she could only finger the motions, close her eyes and imagine the soft, powerful notes wafting from it. Mamiko was resting in the room down the hall, after all, after yet another bold statement ended in nothing being accomplished and she ended up back at the apartment. The digital clock ticked by, excruciatingly slow, and Kumiko soon found herself putting the instrument back in its soft case. She was just about to try and sleep early when she heard a knock on her room's door, steady and familiar.

"Yeah?" she said, opening the door. Mamiko's face stared down at her, and Kumiko decided not to mention the bags hanging under her eyes.

"Your . . . competition-thingy's tomorrow, right?" Both of them were well aware of the fact that Mamiko knew exactly what it was called, but Kumiko remained silent.

"Yeah." Kumiko slung the euphonium case over her shoulder, ready to spring for the door.

"Good luck." Mamiko gave her one more flippant wave before walking away, and Kumiko didn't squander the opportunity to get up and head for the hallway, an announcement of her brief leave tossed casually towards her mother before she walked down the carpeted halls of the building to the elevator. The music playing was tinny and out-of-tune, and there was a moment when Kumiko briefly considered telling whoever programmed the radios on the elevators to listen to something better and to maybe consider fixing the incessant squeaking noise that always seemed to haunt that one elevator.

* * *

It was cold, Kumiko soon realized, and she was ill-equipped, to say the least, for said cold weather. Here she was, a teenager in a summer uniform without as much as a sweater to keep her warm, and the Kousaka residence was a long walk away. She kept going, however, if only because she had gone this far with the euph on her back and it'd be a waste to turn back now.

"The summer's ending soon, huh?" she said aloud, unsure of who would be listening. "It's gone by pretty fast. I wonder if that was what Asuka meant, about wishing that it'd last forever." Her stomach churned at the thought of the upperclassman and her ever-present knowing smirk, that mischievous twinkle in her eye that was replaced all too often with an unfeeling glare. Nozomi and Mizore had reconciled, the former becoming a late addition to Team Monaka while the latter played with such emotion and vigor during the practices that it seemed incomprehensible to ever think that she had been compared to a robot (by a professional, no less), but Asuka's cold stature while Nozomi begged to be let back into the club haunted Kumiko's thoughts more than any one incident ever should. "Crap, which street was it again?"

* * *

About an hour, several misdirected shortcuts, and the impulse purchase of a half-off sweater later, Kumiko stood on Reina's doorstep with her euphonium still resting on her back. She hardly noticed its weight, nowadays. The doorbell rang, and Kumiko came face-to-face with an older woman, glossy black hair pinned back as she wrung out the two sweatbands dripping on her wrists. Kumiko didn't quite know _why_ she made a noise of surprise when the woman looked down at her, but a yelp escaped her lips regardless.

"H-hello?" Kumiko stuttered. "You must be Reina's mom, is she here?"

"Reina's busy practicing, I doubt that she'd want to have any visitors at this time of night."

"Please, Kousaka-san-" the name felt strange, now, unfamiliar and all too formal, "-I'm, uh, a friend from school."

"I told you, she's very busy." Reina's mother cast a gaze towards the staircase. "Even _I_ haven't seen her since dinner, you know. She's always so determined, that girl."

"Heh, tell me about it," Kumiko chuckled, awkwardly leaning against the doorframe.

"Well, you'd best be on your way. Judging from the instrument on your back, I'd bet that you're a part of that band too, right?" Kumiko adjusted the case, having nearly forgotten it was even there.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Have a safe trip home!" Reina's mother shut the door, and Kumiko turned away from the house with a sigh.

"Well, that was a bust," she muttered. She was just about to begin the somewhat long journey home when the notes of a particular _Crescent Moon Dance_ found their way to her ears, and she looked back, captivated by the familiar sound. Yanking her phone from her pocket, Kumiko scrambled to hit the _call_ button. "Hey, Reina?" There was no response at first, only the hellish _beep-beep-beeps_ that felt like drills in Kumiko's head.

 _"Kumiko?"_ The sound of a trumpet carefully being placed on a bedside table could be heard.

"I, uh, f-figured that you might want some company or something."

 _". . ."_ Kumiko could only hear static, and with a determined grunt she went along the side of the house until she reached a rather large tree, gnarled branches just barely reaching the balcony overhead. Keeping a steady back for the euphonium, she began to climb, the phone still pressed against her ear. The tree's bark had started to peel off, revealing the smooth wood underneath, and Kumiko took a moment to run her hand along the surface before returning to her climbing. It soon became apparent that the single branch that reached Reina's balcony wasn't quite thick enough to support the weight of an entire girl, especially not one with a rather heavy instrument on her back, but Kumiko continued nonetheless.

"The things I do for love," she muttered, gripping the branch like her life depended on it (and in a way, it did). A snapping sound began to be heard, and Kumiko gulped. "Crap." She wriggled along the edge of the branch, the balcony just out of reach, and so she did the only reasonable, dignified thing one could do in that situation - she yelled for help. "Reina! Reina, p-please help, I'm in the tree right outside your room- wait, crap, that sounded creepy, forget I said that, just please help me get down!" Reina pushed open the double doors, looking as elegant as ever even in her pajamas, to be met with Kumiko sheepishly grinning while hanging upside-down on the branch.

"Kumiko, what are you-"

"I'll explain in a minute." Kumiko twisted around, pulling off the euphonium case, and half-tossed it into Reina's arms. She set the instrument down next to her, safe as it lay on its side.

"I think you're going to have to jump," Reina said, looking at the nearly-broken branch.

'"What?"' Kumiko yelped. "Reina, I c-can't jump, it's too far, what if I-"

"You'll be fine." Reina stepped forward, spreading her arms out. "Just keep your eyes on me, don't look down, and jump."

"Easy for you to say!" Kumiko was gripping the branch with all the strength she had left in her body, the bark scraping the skin on her hands as dirt found its way underneath her fingernails.

"Do you trust me?" If Kumiko hadn't been quite so terrified, she might have thought that Reina looked absolutely stunning in the starlight, dark hair blowing in the wind as she stood with arms spread.

"Y-yeah, I think so."

"Alright, on the count of three. One, two-"

 _"Three!"_ Kumiko sprang from the tree, and for a split second she felt like she was flying, the wind lifting her far away from the tree and from Reina's house, but the sensation ended just as quickly as it started, and she crashed into Reina with the euphonium still safely on the balcony. It took her a moment to realize the position she was in, and she stared down into Reina's violet eyes for just a second too long before springing back, her cheeks flushed red. "S-sorry, I didn't mean to, I just-"

"It's fine." Reina stood up, dusting herself off, and Kumiko followed suit. "What were you planning to do, anyway? It must have been something big, for you to climb the tree there like that." Kumiko twiddled her fingers nervously.

"I just kinda wanted to see you," she murmured. "The Kansai competition's tomorrow, y'know? We finally made it. I guess I wanted to share that sort of feeling, s-since you've had this goal for longer than I have." Kumiko picked up her euphonium case, wincing when a particularly tough part of the handle pressed up against a cut on her hand. Reina walked back into her room.

"I'm not going to leave you out in the cold," she said, after Kumiko hesitated for a moment. "You know that, right?" Kumiko nodded hurriedly, walking inside with the euphonium still in her hands. Reina sat down on her bed, patting the space next to her. "Since you're already here, I suppose it'd be best to practice together."

"Y-yeah."

Reina carefully lifted the trumpet from her bedside table, handling it as if it were the most precious of objects, a glass sculpture that could crack if it was handled even slightly roughly. Kumiko was captivated before a single note was played. Reina lowered the trumpet for a just a moment, her words coming out in a fast-paced string. "Well? Are you going to play or not?" Kumiko snapped herself out of those thoughts for just long enough to comprehend what Reina was saying, and she quickly took the euphonium (no worse for wear, despite having survived a tree and Reina's porch) from its case.

"The Crescent Moon Dance?"

"Of course." It was after those two words that the two began to play, and Kumiko could feel herself getting lost in the notes, soft music enveloping her like silk, and she felt almost as if she were flying again, as if she was soaring far, far above the room with Reina, just the two of them in some private moment that nobody else could ever even try to enter. She tried to hide her disappointment when the piece ended. "Well?" Reina turned to her, violet eyes alight.

"'Well,' what?"

"Do you think we're ready?" Kumiko hesitated for a moment, resting the euphonium in her lap.

"Yeah," she said, finally. "Yeah, I think we definitely are." Reina stood up abruptly, the trumpet still clutched in her hand.

"So do I," she murmured, in a voice that seemed almost as if she couldn't believe it herself. "We're ready."

"I, uh, guess I should probably get going," Kumiko said. "Y'know, since I need to get a good night's sleep and all, can't be too tired on the day of the competition, heh." Reina nodded in agreement. Kumiko slung the bag back over her shoulder, heading back for the balcony. She was just about to scramble back onto the tree when Reina suddenly walked to her side and pressed a kiss to her cheek, soft and tender and all too short. Kumiko stood in stunned silence, numbly hanging the euphonium on a tree branch while Reina smiled.

"For good luck," she explained, and Kumiko mumbled a quick goodbye before scrambling back down the tree, her cheek still feeling warm and tingly, like some sort of wonderful drug, sunshine and moonlight compressed into one girl's lips. Kumiko walked home that night with a smile on her face, resolve restored as she fell asleep with Reina's kiss still playing back over and over in her mind.

 _We'll make it to Nationals,_ she thought as the room became not much more than a blur of color. _I know we will._

* * *

 **a/n:** the original plan for this fic was for kumiko to start romantically playing the euph to reina on her balcony but then because she's kumiko this happened instead


End file.
